Author
Topic: Retail 2004: How Do You Think It Will Be? (Read 2028 times)

I'd like to be able to rely on retail as well, its a little cheaper, and its always nice actually finding something in the stores like that. I've had a little bit of lucky lately with the Screen Scenes, Hoth Han, the first 3 Clone Wars figures, and my brother found me the Faytonni wave, and JediMAC is helping me fill out some holes in my collection from this year....but I really don't want to miss out on any 2004 figures. I was hoping that maybe the new "wave every month" thing for next year would help, but I don't know. Since I don't have anywhere to shop in my home town for the figures it is a 30-40 minute drive just to check for them, most likely on a Saturday, so they'll probably be cleared out before I get there. I don't remember having quite this much trouble during POTJ though. Hopefully it will improve .

I think retail will be a lot better for 2004 it will pull though, it is a mirror image, from 1999-2004.

1999 - EP1 release, great year2002 - EP2 release, great year2000 - Not to good year for collectors, 2003 - Retail very poor, also not good,2001 - Excellent year for collectors2004 - Again, going to be excellent year for collectors.

Mainlando, your idea is pretty accurate, but things have changed over the years. In 2001, I found most of my POTJ figures at Electronic Boutique and Software ETC. They were pricey, but reliable. I found very little POTJ at regualr toy reatil. The problem is that EB and Software Etc. no longer carry Star Wars. Next year could be very dicey.

A lot of how 2004 will be depends on how this Christmas season goes. If retailers are able to move a lot of Star Wars during the holidays, then we might be in a decent position for distribution in 2004.

I expect that there might be some big sales. Very likely at Toys R Us, where they might hold another "Black Friday" sale the day after Thanksgiving. I'd expect figures to be priced as low as $1.99 each for that event. Unfortunately, the same tactic hasn't been working all that well for KayBee.

After the holidays and the ensuing inventories, I'd expect the first couple of months of '04 to be a little dry at retail. That's just an annual occurrence as retail chains assess their post-holiday inventory situation, and process any new orders. Things will usually pick up in March and the second quarter.

My assessment? If you're a GOTTA HAVE IT! type, then you might want to pre-order the first few waves of 2004. After that, you should be able to get everything easily enough at retail.

Logged

"You were entrusted to lead the Republic." - Vote for Ven Zallow from THE OLD REPUBLIC in figure polls!